For $13 at the recently renovated Bodacious Brew, you can get a milkshake that's almost too pretty to eat.

But when you do — because you won't be able to resist — the experience only gets better.

"Oh my gosh, it is truly like the best milkshake ever," said Angela D’Alessandro, a Pensacola resident who stopped in at Bodacious with a couple girlfriends during the downtown shops' grand re-opening. The group of friends, who volunteer together for several local nonprofits, often meet at the downtown group of shops to plan their next projects.

"It was beautiful, but also so yummy," D’Alessandro said. "The flavor is amazing."

The new treats, each overflowing with candy, cookies, ice cream and other sweet and salty snacks, were introduced during the grand reopening of the Bodacious Shops from Oct. 20-29. The Quint and Rishy Studer-owned family of shops were some of the handful of downtown Pensacola businesses forced to temporarily shutdown after sustaining water damage during an ECUA maintenance project mishap in February.

On the menu for just over a week, the milkshakes are already making their mark on the area. Search "bodacious shops" on the Instagram app and photos of the colorful desserts pop out at you, and more and more are gravitating toward the top of the search results page.

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Manager Alan Bates adds milk as he creates a Cookie milkshake at Bodacious Brew in Pensacola on Monday, October 30, 2017.(Photo: Gregg Pachkowski/gregg@pnj.com)

Bodacious Shops General Manager Alan Bates said Rishy Studer returned from New York City earlier this year with the idea to implement the milkshake-making station into the Brew's coffee & espresso bar.

"Rishy thought it would fit with what we're doing over here," Bates said. "It wasn't just the milkshakes, it was the experience she had. They were big and ornate, and really fun for kids and families. They're basically a large dessert."

Based on customers' feedback, the Bodacious experience is every bit as fun as New York.

"This is truly a place you can walk into and sit at an old milkshake counter and watch them make your milkshake," D'Alessandro said. "I felt that old world, old school vibe. It was so neat."

The price might make you do a double take, but for that $12.99, Bates said patrons are buying more of a dessert for two than they are a standard milkshake.

There are currently three different shakes to choose from — the Cookie Shake, the Frozen Shake and the Sweet and Salty. But Bates said the menu will expand in the coming months.

"We're getting a foundation under us, just getting the hang of it all first," he said.

The exterior of the milkshake glasses are lined with a thick layer of vanilla frosting, each plastered with M&Ms, cookie crumbs or blended rock candy, depending on which of the three options you settle on. Inside of the Sweet and Salty, for example, is ice cream combined with chocolate syrup, pretzels and M&Ms, topped off with whipped cream, pretzel sticks, popcorn and a Sugar Daddy candy bar on a stick.

The grocery-store-snack-aisle in a glass tastes predictably decadent, but it's the presentation that Bates thinks will not only fit right in with the Bodacious vibe, but help make the shakes a hit downtown moving forward.

"Just like everything we do here, from our coffee to our olive oil and how we portray and present it all — it's the ambiance," Bates said. "Everything that we do here is quality and it looks good. So it makes sense to do a milkshake that looks good."

Jake Newby can be reached at jnewby@pnj.com or 850-435-8538.

Want to try one?

Bodacious Brew at 407 S. Palafox offers 3 flavors: the Cookie Shake, the Frozen Shake and the Sweet and Salty

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